Lately there has been a ton of talk about the future of Counter-Strike and which game the community should support in order to have our beloved game thrive in the future, as it has for the past decade in the realm of eSports. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

My personal opinion is probably clear to most avid readers of HLTV.org. I don't enjoy playing CS:GO nor do I plan on playing it in the future due to a myriad of reasons. I think CS 1.6 is the best game there is and I have a hard time seeing it topped, but I do think CSP can be just as good. If the top CS 1.6 players who I have tremendous respect for do however make the switch to CS:GO, I will likely watch some tournaments and then make up my mind on the game as a spectator. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move on.

For the record, I am not saying you should focus all your energy on CSP, nor do I think you should necessarily fully support CS:GO, or even stick to CS 1.6. What I'm essentially preaching in this blog, is that you should play, follow and watch whatever game it is you enjoy yourself. Realistically, the fact is that HLTV.org, as the biggest Counter-Strike website, will follow the masses. If CS:GO picks up and becomes the main FPS title in the future, we will cover it. We've started posting some CS:GO related news recently and people have complained so Nomad added a filtering system so you don't have to see news for games you don't wish to follow. If CSP trumps the competition, we will cover that instead. Naturally CS 1.6 will be covered as long as there are tournaments. Whatever game it is that people follow in the future, I have full faith that HLTV.org will be the go-to site regardless of the title, as it has been for so many years.

How do you like CS:GO?

Personally I think one of the biggest flaws in CS:GO is that the game mimics CS:Source too much - it's obvious how big of an advantage being good at CS:S gives in the game, when the likes of f0rest, GeT_RiGhT and face (all of whom have been playing the game for a while now) can only get a few rounds against the best competition from the other CS title (VeryGames), who according to my sources, haven't played CS:GO much yet. A CS:S playing friend of mine told me he feels 100% comfortable in CS:GO after ten hours of gameplay because the two are so similar. That speaks volumes. I can't imagine people playing a game they don't like or aren't good at, and you have to enjoy playing a game to put in enough time to become good at it.

To me, the best part about Counter-Strike is its longevity and history, and without the main players at the top of today's scene switching over to CS:GO it's hard to imagine it being appealing to me. I don't think the games are similar enough to draw any direct links as to who will be the best in CS:GO, and talking about a player's achievements (or lack thereof) in a previous title makes little sense in the future if CS:GO takes over, thus eliminating what I considering the most interesting factor. I'm not interested in watching people I don't know play a game that I don't enjoy myself, but I can't say I wouldn't watch f0rest, NEO or markeloff play CS:GO. Similarly, I would probably watch CS 1.6 or CSP regardless, because the game titles are to my liking.

CSDM mode in CSP 1.09

To the average gamer or fan it could be totally different. Maybe playing a new game that you think you might become good at will motivate you, or maybe you simply do not care about the history and former professional CS 1.6 players. Maybe you enjoy playing CS:GO more than CS 1.6, CS:S or CSP. Maybe all of the above. There is nothing wrong with any of the choices, contrary to what you might read on the comments of even this website. All of this, ultimately, comes down to personal preference, much like settings. And much like settings, many fans will simply copy, or in this case, follow their favorite players, wherever they may go. You have the power to make your own choice.

I do believe CSP is close enough to CS 1.6 that all the same players would be at the top. Now I know what you might say - that's boring, and you need change. In that case, follow CS:GO. To me CSP would be the ultimate way to continue Counter-Strike's legacy. It's obvious CSP team needs more than new versions to make it a title possibly worth pursuing by event organizers, but they are working on it and I can only hope it works out. Best of all, should CSP be picked up as the new game, it would continue the history of CS 1.6. As for those considering the "by now outdated graphics", here is a look at how CSP 1.10 will look with new textures: redstar.cspromod.com/dust_box_wip.jpg (leftside is CS:S, rightside if CSP) - and the game is fully portable to the newer engine CS:GO runs on for further graphical updates.

Outer bombsite on de_train of CSP 1.09

As for anyone trying to make others switch - it's not necessary. If a game is good enough, people will play it casually for fun and its scene will thrive as a result, which is likely to then lead to leagues and tournaments. If a game is good enough, it will build its own scene - it won't have to rely on taking players from others. Besides, if CS 1.6 community is too small for events like IEM, obviously that scene alone isn't enough to begin with, so what will likely determine the future of any new CS title is how the average gamer who might not even be playing CS yet, likes the game. Therefore, getting half of the CS 1.6 scene (which might be a realistic guess) to switch wouldn't make much of a difference. Look no further than League of Legends - if the casual gamers enjoy the game, it will thrive.

I don't think competition is a good reason to make the switch, unless your sole goal is to make money. We all started playing CS because we found the game enjoyable and fun, and the competitive aspect came afterwards. That is how it should be done with anything, and that is why you know the people at the top of the food chain saying you must switch for competition are only saying it because they have a powerful incentive for it - the more popular the game will be, the more money they are likely to make. If they enjoy the game, that is a whole another story, but when you read NBK's (a player from VeryGames, the best CS:S team) motivations to switch to CS:GO ("CS: GO is so crappy, I'll stick with CS 1.6/CSS!” is not the thought that you should be having, nor the attitude that will benefit the development of CS: GO as a competitive e-sports title in any way."), it seems obvious that's not the case.

I can see the comparisons with CSP to quake live - "the ultimate quake" and we all deeply wish for experiencing "the ultimate Counter-Strike".

Btw, Its quite a big shame Quake Live isnt supported by more bigger tournies then DreamHack. The e-sport scene with its organisers must contain the enough knowledge to be aware of the huge importancy with keeping the esport-legends active as long as possible. Look Cooller - it isnt possible to keep on whith no backup.
Exept pretty much only DreamHack with grekarn in the front knows the deeper meaning in supporting true esport-game that aquires lots of skill and practise, just like Quake for one example.

quakelive don't really adevertise their game as they should, neither creat conditions for the game being played in every country with good conditions, i'ts normal that quakelive is almost dead with only 2 or 3 tournaments per year and a small community

I know what he said, I never said that CS:GO was CS2, but expecting that CS2 will be even close to 1.6 is irrational!
They failed at every try to create a competitive game after 1.6, I doubt they'll be able to do that now !
They don't listen to the community at all, why would they create a game that everybody hates prior its release?

Because it's a win win for vALVE to create such game. Players only want 1.6 with better graphics is that too hard to make? They sit on the 1.6 source code which shouldn't be so hard for them to merge with source code. Sure it might take a while but in the end it's worth it. The end results will be massive, you just created a new top FPS game CS 2.0

Even if pro players will go CSGO, because of the money, wich is directly provided by Valve.

Valve will spend a lot of money to the tournament and even to ESL to make the game played. Don't you see that CSP has dissapear from ESL ? I bet that CSP will not coming back in ESL because of kind "CSGO exclusivity" bought by Valve.

it's pretty obvious valve doesn't care about esports, at least as far as cs:go goes. if they would, they could just host a side tournament in cs:go at the international 2, or pay iem to host a season in cs:go - two things they have not done.

valve has not paid anyone to make them drop cs 1.6/cs:s/csp, simply because they don't care. they have bigger fish to fry in dota2 vs lol.

Its time to finally accept that CS 1.6 can no longer be supported in its full form as it used to be, We have to move on. I suggest CS:Pro mod i have been look into it and it looks really great for the both world, it needs the community support and it will rise and solve all of our problems. Its just a matter of time.

ummm i dont remember that the weapons are like that in cs:s (that big one) plus i dont remember that in cs:s if u press the crouch button it will crouch until u press it again...please correct me if im wrong....and that are only the 2 things please dont make me to tell about the other things...

CS:GO cant be compared CS:S, neither can it be compared to COD.... dats wat i meant...... GO is better than Source a totally different game, my opinion.... but COD, i've played campaigns in single player, i believe the firing, recoil and movements wudnt differ to multi-player version(correct me if i m rong), so i dun find any similarity between cod and go either.....

damn, that was long :D
nice blog lurppis, i just fear that CSP will come too late...you're very close with the promod project, how far are them from the final release? or they can't even think of a final release at this moment?

Kinda right.
Though Cs 1.6 became boring for me since I can't really compete. You know, years back you played the german EAS and you always had something to compete. Not to earn money or anything just to compete with others and this is just not really possible anymore without paying money. At least not only germans wise.

The point about thriving due to casuals is a bit off. LoL had a great success due to that - correct but not only - key factor was that Riot made the effort to make it an eSports game - by supporting top players, adding eSport-friendly features and, i guess most of all, lobbying and backing up the major leagues with cash. It's a combo, not few irrelevant factors. A game cannot be major eSports with even big community and no support from developer (via Team Fortress 2 - tons of players playing), nor can it simply run on developers cash( dozens of examples here).

This clearly shows how unfortunate it is for CSP team - even if they could make a good game(and they did) it still don't have that much chance of a success as a major eSports due to lack of financial(unless they have millions stashed somewhere?). Fromy my point of view, and I've been supporting 1.6 for more than 10 years now, CS:GO is an average game. If, and only if, Valve could deliver some real support for eSports aspect of the game ($$, well-balanced matchmaking) then CS:GO will succeed as an eSports game. Else it will be just another CS:S out there, with the difference that there won't be a 1.6 superior to it anymore.

Looking for a new eSports game -> CS:GO can't be the same as CS:GO. I know most of community love Na`Vi, ESC, Fnatic etc. - that's cool. I'd probably want to see them winning again, in the new game - yes. But I want it after a fair fight, a fair fight(not CS:S guyz raping 1.6'ers nor the other way) against newcomers from other games, who are eager to compete and win. Lately CS 1.6 was in a dead-end so to speak - TOP teams were praccing hard, while the average and high skilled teams didn't because most of the players assumed that there's no point for it. Those who got on high level before stayed there, those who didn't - gave up. With new game like CS:GO community would have new wave of those mid players who might be aiming to be the best, which simply wasn't working in 1.6 scene for few years now. If I'm wrong please show me three entirely new teams to the global scene(i mean 5 guy s who weren't playing really good before) that managed to make some damage against current TOP teams(Na`Vi, ESC, former SK, Fnatic).

Also the fun fact about our community is that majority of you believe that you are very much a part of the eSports, while not participating in their local LANS, leagues nor watching local streams. CS:GO can and probably will succeed as an eSport (if Valve supports it in proper way) without you - there are tons of CS:S, BF3, COD4 and CS 1.6 players who are willing to give the game a shot. And some of them will love it as it will be their first CS game ever or they will like it and stick to it. That's how the communities are born.

i agree on lol's part, riot had a big influence on that. i do however think that a big enough community would guarantee tournaments in the game, which is basically what carmac said in his interview. re: tf2 - don't be ridiculous, it doesn't come anywhere close to cs 1.6, which is, according to everyone, on the verge of dying.

as for your point about new teams that came up in the past three years - how about na`vi? how about most of fnatic?

As I said - I mean NEW teams. Like in Dota 2 - American Team Fire popped up sometime ago winning some online cups and messing up with the best BIG teams (there are lot's of such examples in SC2, LoL and Dota 2 - players are still going for perfection, rising the skill bar sky high while 1.6ers simply don't give a fuck mostly). Na`Vi players remember 1.3 or 1.5 times. I mean NEW - like fresh 1.6 players who started 3-4 years ago, formed a team and managed to do any damage against top on any LAN tournament out there.

TF 2 - http://store.steampowered.com/stats/. Currently 45k, peak today 61k, while CS1.6 currently 42k, peak 52k. It's a huge game, and it's fun, it has numbers and casuals but still never going to make it into the eSports - no support from developers for this. The game is aimed to attract casuals only and if they decide the same for CS:GO then it'll be nothing new - just another big game not in eSports.

That's exactly my point up there - a game must not only attract crowds, it must be founded and most importantly supported in eSports-way by developers. This is how the leagues operate now, time's changed since everyone was donating for CS 1.6 cuz it was HUGE while Valve didn't give a shit about it, and still it was eSports.

While 1.6 is dead from competitive point of view, it won't comeback this time :(. Hard truth - no league will pay for the prizes totally on their own nowadays for a game that's not even updated by developer and don't attract many newcomers to play competitively.

isn't the whole point of a really developed game that you don't get new superstars every single year?

the level of play in cs 1.6 has risen every single year, up until maybe earlier in 2012 until it became evident cs 1.6 was on its way out.

i haven't looked at stats for a while but considering it's only been from 9am until 3:25pm so far in central europe in those steam stats, i'm willing to bet those numbers will cahnge later today in favor of cs 1.6 once the euros get home from school/work and load up cs.

sc2 is surely supported by developers, but doesn't blizzard actually make tournaments pay for a license to host events with a prize purse over a certain numbers in sc2? that would be the opposite of lol, and the reason they can do that, is because of how popular it is.

cs 1.6 won't come back, but you can still enjoy it casually for quite a while, especially if you're from north america or esea's adventure to europe gets popular enough as they will keep hosting leagues to it as long as it's popular enough.

It exactly isn't the point - if you followed some of Carmac's recent interviews you would notice that he mention the big number of rising stars in LoL as one of the main reasons to pick up the game - there are literally new teams popping to the very top every few months and old ones falling if they don't pracc hard enough (Fnatic won Riot's league S1, got badly owned in beginning of S2 and were forced to change roster and practice hard to get back on top again). He also confirmed that it's a flaw of CS - you have to bring several CS teams from Europe to IEM:NY simply because there are no new stars rising in NA to fight them, not mentioning Asia.

It's exactly is my point - I want new stars fighting the old ones every year with the skillbar this high, not the situation where Markeloff is raping everyone throughout entire tournament until delpan or pasha appears in grand finale. I want the competition to be as tight as possible, not bunch of dinosaurs fighting each other every tournament while rest gave up training and there are no newcommers to fill their place.

About TF2 numbers - we can compare it in the evening, but I'm quite sure it wont outnumber CS1.6 2:1, it will be very, very close. My only point about TF2 is that the game is huge and won't ever be an eSports due to lack of support form developer.

About Blizzard - they sell license but, from what I understood they also support some of the tournaments with cash? I might be wrong, but even if - they did a shitload of awsome eSports features in game - it's basically based on playing competitively (any1 buys if for the single player/any1 from single player didn't try multiplayer?) They added great shoutcast features and they recently made it possible to fill an infobox for shoutcasters about their streams. Same in Dota 2 - you can create in-game tournaments, the spectator options are INSANE (every eSports game should follow Valve's path here).

And that is exactly my point - everyone will play what they like. Sure, there will be some leagues, many people will have a lot of fun.

But our community thinks that CS:GO won't go big without them - time to wake the fuck up. CS:GO will go big in eSports if Valve decide to support it in this way - new players will get there, new stars will rise, world is not going to end because some hardcore gamers will stick to 1.6.

I'm kind of confused about the stars - so do you agree that there should be new ones just like they rise in LoL and SC2 during almost every major tournament or do you rather see another Na`Vi/ESC/Fnatic final every tournament? Because that's the main issue here. Imho that's one of the main factors IEM dropped 1.6 - the matches between our current tops every freaking time don't generate as much emotions and entertainment as seeing an underdog fighting for top3, beating well-established players/teams. At least for me.

I wouldn't jump too quickly to conclusions with Valve and CS:GO. The situation with Dota 2 was very different from this one - they had to go big because of strong competitors out there - LoL, HoN and original Dota. With CS:GO they have this sort of comfort - there's no other CS-ish game out there coming up, nor there is one constantly stealing from current CS communities (CS 1.6 and CS:S players aren't migrating to other FPS titles to play it as esports, are they nowadays?). This way they have opportunity to build eSports around CS:GO by baby steps - 1.6 is gone and CS:S was never there - they don't have to drop a 1M$ like in Dota 2 to get noticed.

You're kinda comparing CS 1.6 (a more than 12 years old game) to new ones such as LoL, Dota2 and SC2. CS was like that in the beginning but come on, 8-12 years of pro players playing over and over again should be topped by 3-4 years experienced players ? That's not possible, thank god.

By the way Na`Vi were just random high skilled players and just made it to the rank of number 1 team in the space of a few months, they beat everyone and established new records, in 2010. That's kinda good imo.

Almost every year we saw a new team destroying everyone. We had lurppis' 69N (add the rest here), mTw, PGS/ESC/etc, fnatic, SK... Of course these teams were always at the top, but the players behind these names weren't always the same either.

All in all, I believe your "not enough new stars" point is wrong.

But, I still agree CSP will never succeed or at least never be bigger than CS:GO as it will lack new players. It's been the same shit with CS:S and CS 1.6. The average new gamer or even experienced gamer going to the shop for a new game will find a few boxes of CS:GO and none of CSP. What made CS 1.6 popular back then was that it was bought back by Valve and we could find it in any average games shop. CSP won't have that chance as Valve now have their own CS.

Something else for lurppis:
You said CS:GO wasn't that fair as it felt a lot like CS:S and our beloved stars didn't stand a chance against CS:S's top players. But it would be the same shit (except our stars would trash CS:S') on CSP. As a CS 1.6 player for around 10 years, I only dream of CSP being the biggest game ever as it's really enjoyable. But let's be honest, if I was a CS:S player, I'd prefer CS:GO as it would be way easier for me to get better.

Most of us don't enjoy CS:GO because we clearly suck at it, we get owned by s3r1ALK1LL3r all day long and we get frustrated. Practicing would probably make a difference and we would be the strongest in the end but it's hard to practice when you don't enjoy the game.

you don't need to find csp in an average game story, this isn't 2001 bro, this is 2012 - games are delivered digitally over the internet. if csp becomes free like tf2 with no hassle, people will play it.

my blog never included the word "fair", all i said was the players i am interested in following as a fan or as a spectator likely won't be at the top of the game, which then makes the game itself unattractive to me.

if "the battle" was lost on cs:s players' opinions there wouldn't even be a competition because cs:s would be big enough to be the #1 game - that is not the case.

i have never been able to tell if i suck at cs:go because i've never really played it online, so that's not really the case. it only took me minute to realize i don't like said game, so there was no need for me to join an online server.

I didn't take the time to re-read what you actually said but the spirit is there. You, as a 1.6 player, won't find the matches attractive if your beloved stars get trashed. What I said is that is would be the other way around for CS:S players on CPS meaning there is little hope they find it attractive too.

And of course CS:S players alone won't make the decision. But I was just trying to explain a CS:S's player POV. Thus trying to prove we're are more likely to see """ all """ of the CS:S players switching to CS:GO over CSP.

And for the last point, I played a few PCWs as well as ESL cups, and I was just trashed by CS:S players. And when I say trashed it was like not even a single chance ^^. With people running everywhere even with AWP and still killing you. Almost all of the kills you take would make a highlight of the year clip on 1.6.

that's surprising, last time I checked there cs 1.6 was still dominant over the course of a day. however, that only proves my point - making it free WILL make it ridiculously more popular, and afaik that's the goal of CSP too.

to me similar people playing at the top only proves that the game takes skill. We've seen new players break out every single year and raise their level of play, but asking a team of five to come out of nowhere simply isn't realistic in a DEVELOPED sport.

my point was that Valve has no interest in making cs:go big, it either will or will not become that on its own it seems. they do not seem to care much, regardless of what they might have said almost a year ago.

There's a simple reason why TF2 is so popular:
It's free to play.
Before it became f2p, it was almost dead. The impact of making it free was HUGE. Some weeks ago the player number decreased very fast, then Valve came up with an update and new content ("Meet the Pyro" trailer) and the player number went from <45k to over 80k. This game lives from the hype and the fact it's free. There's a LOT of community made content and Valve is doing a great job by supporting the community in producing such stuff.

And that's exactly what may CSP succeed:
It is free2play and actively supported.

Today cs:go is more similar to source, but 3 months ago it's was better for 1.6 players, and nowdays more than 80% of players are source players.Even i kick ass in go, after 1 hour i feel uncomfortable because of movement dynamic.Recoil is very decent, same for hitboxes but only thing that's piss me off is the slow acelleration of player.Also ct player models are too fat ( like teletubbies http://st2.apps.su/imgs/40/80/56/551/mzl.clpyveah... and http://www.gpb.org/files/national/teletubbies_main.. didn't tried csp 1.09, but when they lauch it i will and i am hoping that it will be good !

as proven by carmac's interview a while back on hltv.org, sponsors do not actually care about graphics, but they do still affect the number of players because new kids are more likely to play a game with nicer graphics

I agree with this, kids just want the new graphics, but there are a lot of games have a better graphics than CS:GO
counter strike is more about the team play and aim and this stuff, besides the games like CoD LoL DotA2 that depend on graphics more than anything

Almost everything what made me refuse CSS during the past 7 years can also be found in CS:GO. Some aspects of CS:GO are even worse than CSS.
I'm an open-minded guy and I played a lot of different games in the past, but only a few stayed longer than 2 weeks on my PC and I don't see CS:GO being one of them (the game would have to change drastically).

On the other hand I really like playing CSPromod. I'm a long-time CS player and I don't see any reason to refuse CSP. If you're doing that, you're just a stubborn idiot. The previous versions got some game-breaking stuff, but the game evolved into a legit successor of CS 1.6. Everything what makes CS 1.6 a great game is also featured in CSP plus there are a lot of nice improvements.

Everyone who loves 1.6 should support CSPromod. CS 1.6 won't have any future in terms of esports and a project like CSP, which is MADE for esport, would be GOLD. There's so much potential in that project.

Dude all what you need for playing cspromod is just an steam account, nothing else, no buying games, just install steam, make account, install cspromod, thats it, the rest files will be downloaded automatic.

i think you might have to download tf2 and the source sdk for the game to work if your steam account doesn't have cs:source, but you are right in the sense that the game itself is free if you download those two manually (as both are free and can run csp on them).

I played promod, it was quite good. I didnt have chance to play csgo but i will definetely try it. Now i tried lol and its pretty fun. CS will end as competitive game but wont disapear. Online leagues are full of players.

The version that are getting the most events and the most money are the one that are going to be played.

In my opinion CS:GO aren't that bad and i think that if it gets a couple of movement upgrades the game will be the next CS. It really has the potential and if the developers continues to listen to the players they will get a great product in the end.

I remember when 1.5 turned into 1.6 and a lot of players complained about the new knife and the new weapons but since 1.5 was deleted and replaced with 1.6 they forced the players to just get used to the new stuff and over the years the complains have disappeared. I think that this is the only way to get a huge CS scene again, just delete 1.6 and source and exchange it with a new game.

In terms of game play, 1.6 will always thrive to me over the other titles. However, in terms of e-sports CS:GO might take the spotlight and bring back the CS franchise on top again. It does not mean they're as good as 1.6 in my opinion.

1.6 will be always be the first for me,still kinda hope it will be played next year in large tournaments after cs:go proves to be unplayable on a high level,if that doesnt happend csp is a nice substitution(played 1.08 and from what i gathered 1.09 is even better)

It's good to see a pro like yourself choose enjoyment over money. You obviously haven't lost touch with your roots in this great game.

I find myself upset when I see pros, tournament organizers, and other people in the scene with a lot of influence and power try to dissolve the CS 1.6 community and push everyone to CS:GO. For instance, lpkane recently mentioned that he wishes to get rid of the invite division for 1.6 next season (Source too) in favor of a single CS:GO invite division. This is upsetting for me to hear this because I think it should be the community that decides which games should be played and supported, not a few individuals. Someone attempting to kill off or remove support for a game just for monetary gains is unethical in my opinion.

realistically, if i was still set on playing counter-strike (e.g. get_right) and i thought cs:go wasn't much worse, i'd probably play it.

however, i already know from the past years (and now from this year) that i have no problem not playing cs and doing other things with my time, and most importantly, cs:go is simply such a bad game in my opinion that i could not play it competitively even if i wanted to. you need to enjoy a game to be able to play it for hours upon hours to improve. i doubt i could do it, and i also feel comfortable moving away from playing video games competitively.

i agree with you on that, and it's saddening that even the decision makers in esports are basically ~all sheep and follow others. for lpkane it's a sound business move if cs:go picks off, but esea is still hosting their lower leagues in each game so if it doesn't, it won't be hard for them to revert back to cs 1.6.

CS 1.6 - not dead but will be soon
CSS - dead for years, but has its own good history. I don't like it,but I respect it.
CSP - has potential
CS GO - Terrible game and insult to Counter strike series. "full developer support" my ass, CS:GO is being crated by third party company. I've seen interview with kapio (I think) about CS:GO,and he said that he talked to developers and they don't know shit about competitiveness.

in my opinion we need a game that can merge the 1.6 and the source scene. And i really dont think CSP can do that, not in DK at least. Right now im playing GO with some guys, and so are a lot of source players, so i think that GO can really get a lot of players behind it, and then the sponsors will go with that.

you just answered your question yourself , you want a game to merge CS1.6 and CS:S , so the answer is CS:PROMOD.

Why?

Because : Like lurppis said , CS:S players feel 100% good in CS:GO because it has both graphics and gameplay of CS:S , that's why it's shit , cause they should have maked it in another way , half cs1.6 half cs:s , not designed from just one side , instead of adding CS:S graphics and putting CS1.6 gameplay they added both graphics and gameplay from source so the game is unplayable from the major part of the community.

CSPromod instead has source graphics but the gameplay(shooting,bhop,crouch,nades) and everything is identical to CS1.6 , so that can be called "the merge between CS1.6 and CS:S" , not that shitty CS:GO.

im only saying what i think. and in my own experience, the 1.6 scene in denmark is not that much more bigger than the css, it might actullay be smaller now.. And since alot of the 1.6 players is older than the source players in dk, i think that a lot of 1.6 players is going to stop playing...

After 12 years of playing counter strike for fun as a casual gamer, I am still enjoying it a lot so I'm sticking to it until I can have fun with any other CS title, which CSS and CS:GO failed to deliver to me so far, haven't tried promod, maybe I will, try and give something back to the title that gave me so good moments over the years and seems to be dying slowly..

The end of 1.6 is inevitable, unless a miracle happens..
CS:P will never be competitive, but GO is a new chance for the CS series, it seems it has the necessary support, so i think HLTV.org should definitely care about CS:GO..
But of course post about 1.6 news 'till the very end..

Nice blog Tomi :D and I posted on your facebook page too , hope you are gonna do a CSP showmatch so CS:GO can "die" before it even gets born...cause already the 1.08 is awesome , all the movements like bunnyhop , crouch , shooting are IDENTICAL to 1.6...with new graphics , seriously love it , can't imagine how 1.09/1.10 will be :D hope this game gets some real credit internationally , cause it deserves it after all the effort of the developers!

you should try it , wasn't interested aswell but after i downloaded it and put the settings to my preference...i joined a server and the first thing i noticed is that bhop is nice , then the awp was nice too...slowly trying maps and nades i realized its practically 1.6 with source graphics...its really amazing and 1.09 is gonna be even better :D

when some1 plays looking for the best playability/most competitive/funniest experience, cs1.6 its the obvious choice, only when looking to earn money and forgetting those features mentioned above (or being unable to keep up with the pressure due to the level of competition) is when one would look for cs:go etc

If I were rich, I would buy somehow CS 1.6 from Valve for few millions, then I would cancel all accounts from 1.6 so people buy it again for 10$. I get back my invested millions in Valve for buying CS 1.6 platform and with rest of cash I make my own tournaments with games I want to. :)

1.6, this is just like when source came, all predicted 1.6 end, but it lives, and it should live much longer than fag_right and face want to, it's obvious that they don't like the game, they like just the money.
1.6, without questioning

i dont give a shit about CS:GO,CS:S,CSP i like 1.6, i enjoy playing it,i've played it 10 years ago, i'll play next 10, its just so simple, play the game u love and enjoy while doing it,dont let someone force u to play game u dont enjoy just because sponsors will pull that game through !

there's no good replacement for us, cs1.6 users.. CS:GO is even worse than CSS, CS:Promod is really good game, but there is still lot of work on it.. our lovely cs1.6 needs only few changes imo(new HUD, remake of all maps etc)..

CSP needs more frequent updates (and auto-updating through steam would help alot too). The actual gameplay of CSP is pretty much spot on. The movement is 95% there - which is one of the most important things to get right for a new CS title imho. The recoil is 80-90% there, the maps are great, etc.

The problem with CSP now is that its incredibly dated visually. Even CSGO isnt as 'pretty' as other FPS titles like Battlefield 3, and it isnt even out yet. CSP needs to nail out the rest of the code to have the gameplay exactly where it needs to be, then as soon as CSGO comes out (or earlier if its somehow possible) start using all CSGO assets (map textures, gun models, possibly sounds if they're better, player models and animations - the models/animations in CSGO are actually pretty good, imho). If they can do that, and do it quickly unlike every other update they do that takes like 1 year+, then they have a chance of it actually taking off and actually being a damn good game.

The same kind of copyright that prevents them from using CSS assets...?

All they'd need to do is have people be required to own CSGO to play the CSP with GO assets, just like people are currently required to own CSS to play the current CSP which is filled with CSS assets. The alternative is spend months, probably years, making their own which either wont get up finished or will end up not being great, or both.

I know they are, but they could save themselves a lot of time and work and use CSGO's, which will also probably result in better assets than they'd be able to do too. The problem with CSP is that they've taken far too long with updates. Lifting CSGO's assets will allow them to have a visually-finished product combined with their almost gameplay-finished version, and have it around the same time that CSGO launches which is perfect.

CODS? Have you ever played any COD? Cod has different aiming (you have to right-click to aiming) You can lie, build sentry guns, drive helicopter, there is not Health Percent etc. So stop talking s**ts please.

games like promod and CS:GO can't have success.
If the game is set to be successful it should be successful at very beginning of it's creation. Look at Starcraft II or Dota 2. It's released and everybody plays it and don't say a word about Dota and Starcraft I, we can't say it about promod and CS:GO. Still waiting for Counter-Strike 2, I hope Valve finally got brains.

both games were clearly on their way out, valve aren't retarded enough business wise to buy out their opposition when their own game doesn't have any tournaments. did you notice the news about wcg or eswc picking up cs:go as a tournament game? me neither, because it didn't happen.

we were stripped from all the tournaments because iem dropped cs 1.6, and in esports most people are sheep which means everyone follows the people above them.

csp still has a sound plan of how to make it work; three years ago there was no need for csp, the best year of cs 1.6 was still on its way in (2010).

the pace at what the csp team works (as far as i know) has nothing to do with their confidence in the game - all of them are full time students or employees, so they obviously can't go code all day without getting paid for it, so they chime in whenever they DO have free time they can sacrifice.

Yeah fair enough but will inevitable that CS:GO will be the new title with MOST of these big comps.

Yes as you said people are sheep but when CSP brought out anything you'd remember everyone just bagged it with out actually trying it that just made everyone think the same had it have half the support as it does now I think we would be in a better place with the development of CSP.

If everyone was positive with CSP more people would donate and money is a pretty good motivator to make really good product and being 2-3 years ago if people were playing and not bagging CSP maybe just maybe Valve would of thought differently.

Do you think CSP has any hope to be a game to be played at eSport events?

I don't think CS:GO will become a competitive eSports title since Valve obviously don't give a shit! I mean compared to D2 they are doing nothing to promote CS:GO!

On the other hand I don't think promod will pick up either, as a matter of fact I don't think any FPS PC game is likely to be successful in the future, since all the young gamers nowadays would rather play a console than a PC game!

The 1.6 scene got stabbed when IEM dropped the game, others just followed, so the only way that CS:GO or CSP would become popular is if IEM makes them an official title, though they'll have completely different communities !
CSP full of ex-1.6 players wanting to keep our old game alive!
CS:GO full of people that failed in both CS1.6 and CS:S and new kids whose parents haven't bought consoles yet!

i have not tried CS:GO as yet. but if you say that its similar to CS:S (which i have played), then i dont want to play it! id rather stick with 1.6 or play CSP when i get the chance.

regarding competitions, ive never had the chance to make a living out of gaming. when ever ive played, it has always been for fun. but if my favorite players/teams do play another FPS title, i see no harm in following them or watching the games/competition.

nice blog! I would like to say that &#1089;s go not comfortable playing, the graphics very annoying, to tell the maps are terrible, and traine nuke is just awful in &#1089;s go the balance wrong, hardly able to make such http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D200h506sg

I can relate :D Since I only play for fun I'll probably choose CSP if CS:GO sucks when it releases. We don't absolutly know how CSGO is going to be when it's out but as it's now I'll rather play CSP on my sparetime. I'll probably watch GT, f0rest and whoever might follow to CSGO for the sake of history.

considering he just wrote a blog(?) on vcontact.ru talking about how na`vi plans on sticking to counter-strike 1.6 and he's been vocal about disliking the time, i'm going to go ahead and guess every player called "ceh9" on a public server isn't really ceh9, just like every "markeloff" isn't markeloff in cs 1.6

possibly but who knows, with one milion dollar tournament things could happend and is not the first time when i seen a na`vi player on csgo, i've seen markeloff on csgo like in december last year when it was that csgo "boom", but yeah, you might be right

My opinion about CSP:
It is actually good. I think game is much like CS 1.6, in some maps some corners are not precise as in CS. I think that is only thing wrong about it.

My opinion about CS:GO:
I found 2 things that I like about, and tons of things I hate/dislike about it. Personally I think M4 and AK recoil are fine, I don't know are they same as CS 1.6 but they feel nice. Other thing I like shotguns of this game. Even thought shotguns aren't used in competetive terms they are very fun to use in fun maps, or when your overrunning enemy. Shotguns in CS:GO are super fun!

About hate. I am not going to list all stuff, but most important staff. They changed classic maps way too much (or not changed, they took from CS:S and changed some maps little and some none). Many maps lost their tactical ways to play them, at least what is called tactical in CS 1.6. I think the way teams acted as a team and did nade throws, pop flashes and tactics were best things watching Counter-Strike. I actually think Counter-Strike is most fun to watch because this.

Movement: I think CS:GO lacks it. I mean it's basically same as on Source, when you crouch it stops your character, cannot bhop, cannot countjump and cannot doubleduck so basically movement is currently full of shit. It's Source-engine's fault, but CSP made it fine so Valve should have enough skills to make it good.

Personally I think CS:GO lacks that they took all bad qualities from CS:S and took only M4/AK recoil from CS 1.6. When they should have token more from the best Counter-Strike.

CSP doesn't lack that much anything, but they should make it even better than CS 1.6. I don't say changing stuff but trying to make more competetive maps for it. If people just see staff over and over again it get's bored even thought the game changes a lot.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I probably start following CSP if high money tournaments go there and top teams start practicing hardcore for it.

Well, my thought was "I'm going to play whatever the international events and online leagues pick up".
I've got my CS:GO Beta key 2 months ago, played against bots for a while and my first impression was that the game sucked.
Today I was playing CS:GO DM for one hour, and I was suprised how bad it still is.

Pros:
- Graphics are nice.
- Matchmaking is a nice feature, but it chooses USA servers for me instead of brazilian ones.

Cons:
- Recoil
- Hitbox
- It's totally made for kids. When you aim your friend the crosshair changes, so you wouldn't shot him. When it's an enemy it becomes red.
- There's a blue arrow on top of the head of your teammates...
- If you get shot, you can't move. If you're with an awp you're dead, the delay of switching weapons is too big.
- If you move while scoping, you can't aim.
- Achievements poping everywhere in my screen.
- Jesus fucking Christ, you can use MOLOTOVS. FUCK THIS SHIT. YOU CAN USE THAT FUCKING ELETRIC WEAPON.

If your blog was balanced I would see where you are coming from, but you neglect to mention the fact that FPS titles currently are dying, hence why there seems to be a LOT of interest from CoD players in the switch (nothing related to the fact that people think it's a game made for CoD players). The FPS title is dying as a whole, and somewhere a long the line, the communities need to band together and make a big push of it, even if CS:GO isn't a perfect choice.

Waiting for CSP is just silly, because for CSP to ever take off it needs regular updates, and more focus around it, and yes whilst I understand that CSP is a volunteer based team, they need to also remember that they need to push out regular updates to show that they are still around doing things, even if it is small updates.

CS:GO has the potential to become a big game and show the world of eSports that FPS titles aern't ready to be binned in favour of LoL, SC2 & DoTA2.

I will leave it with this video from a recent LAN in Vancouver, which seems to show all the benefits of CS:GO and the Canadians/Americans seem to be showing the world why we should all be getting behind CS:GO..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO50YcY5SmI

this is a blog containing my personal opinion, and my personal opinion is that cs 1.6 > csp > cs:s > cs:go. my entire blog is basically about the fact that everyone should just play the game they enjoy the most and if that's enough backing for one title, it will get picked up.

what you, and just about every other former cs:s and current cs:go fanboy is saying, is that everyone NEEDS to back cs:go because there is no other option to save fps. if the fps genre dies, it just means it deserved to die because there were no good enough/new enough titles to gather enough players.

if csp receives the kind of backing they are working on, obviously they will have a ton of more time to dedicate to improving the game, and, unlike valve/hpe, they actually do make changes the community wants to make the game perfect for competitive counter-strike instead of the 13 year old pub heroes.

cs:go has potential, sure, and if it is good enough, it will do it. however, the fact everyone is posting about how we all must back it just shows even they know it's not good enough, but are just hoping anyways.

i don't even understand the point of your youtube clip, they held a small tournament for cs:go so now we should all get behind it? what?

Your blog maybe you own personal opinion, however form a more balanced opinion here. You've openly slated CS:GO since you didn't get treated royally by Valve.

Sometimes I do wonder why you say what you say, but I give you the benefit of the doubt mostly. You sit there and say that it needs this and needs that, but in reality, all it really needs is for you to actually open your eyes, and actually learn the game.

You used the recent game between VeryGames & ROCKSTAR as a way of pointing out how the game is so "Source favoured" when it clearly it isn't. The fact of the matter, VeryGames are probably one of the worlds most disicplined teams, and practice one hell of a lot. ROCKSTAR seemed to most people who watched the game, a mix team, no harm in that. But using it as a way to sit there and point out CS:GO's flaws, is not really the way to go about it.

Yes people should play the game they like the most, but there comes a time, when you have to move on, StarCraft players seem to be incredibly united behind SC2, and moved on from 1 (where some players still mention that SC1 is the superior game, they still did). The fact is, 1.6 and the tournaments behind it which kept it going for the years it has, have now decided they cannot support a game that is clearly not worth it. We know it isn't down to purely graphics (its part of the reason, and if anyone sits there and denies that, is a moron), but how affordable it is to give out money to teams and the fact that 1.6 isn't as big as it used to be.

Your "opinion" blog didn't mention any pure facts that in some of the tournaments there have been a big number of clans from not just the two communities however CoD & TF2 teams are flirting with the possibility of getting in on CS:GO. The problem is you sit there and say that people who say "everyone needs to get behind GO" are loser's, is just pure bullshit and you know it. The reason why GO attracts various teams from other communities is the game actually has something for everyone, which is why people should back it.

If you don't understand the point of my youtube clip.... the point was to show you that the Americans & Candaians seem to be getting behind the game in great numbers irrespective of what community they come from, thats great stuff to see.

are you actually gonzo under a fake account or are you just so uncreative you have to literally copy paste what he said before to come up with a reasoning?

i don't have to learn the game because i don't plan on ever playing it. as of right now i am sitting on 12.2 hours of CS:GO since i received the beta last year, 10 hours of which were for the platronics ces event in january - i have no intention of playing it.

you have a loser attitude if you think everyone must get behind CS:GO to save something that doesn't exist. you sound like the kind of person who mentally checks out and starts thinking about the lower bracket match when you lose first half 5-10 and then lose the second half pistol round.

if CS:GO does attract various teams from all communities, then why do you need us to back it? if the game is so good that it will attract people on its own, then surely there will be no problems?

you think a clip from a lan with a few teams shows that people are getting behind the game? i hope you realize the reason so many teams signed up for the eswc qualifier was that everyone who signs up (for free) receives a CS:GO beta key, which most people still do not possess. besides, any north american will jump at just about any opportunity for travel, even though in reality dynamic is so far above everyone else, the opportunity is just to maybe compete for second place.

I kinda wished I was just Gonzo under a fake account... he probably could shoot you down so much than I could.

You are actually an idiot, the fact that you have just openly admitted to "not playing CS:GO", yet have the chance to give feedback, actively. You are an actual disgrace to the CS franchise.

The loser attitude is infact coming from you.... lets be honest, last year on HLTV you were being openly slated left right and centre by the HLTV community for being a "shit journalist"... there were threads hating on you. You have managed to turn that into hating on CS:GO with you at the front for your own personal gain. It's actually amazing to watch from the outside how someone wants so many people to love him.....

correction: everyone on this planet has an equal chance of "giving feedback, actively". valve/hpe doing anything about it is a whole another story. cs:go however, IS an actual disgrace to the cs franchise.

you have a nicely selective memory because unlike you, i actually read through the comments on everything i post, and i know that's not the case. the people who posted negative things were always die hard fanboys of a team i didn't predict to 16-0 everyone at a tournament.

there's no personal gain, in fact if cs:go becomes big i will most likely have more opportunities for my part time work in esports. i just think the game is dogshit and i'm not afraid to speak my mind.

that last bit about yourself would have been touching but i was once exposed to a picture of your fat-self which also explains why you need people you don't even know to love you; clearly you're not getting that love from anyone close to you.

lol.... amazing I managed to make you stoop down to the level of some of people on this site.

Calling me fat... wow.. that hurt... fuck my life....

It's alright, I have an ok life... "love from anyone close to you", yeah of course, thats how human beings live.

I personally don't give a shit whether people love me or hate me on this site, or Cadred, a lot of what I do in the community, I do for others and do it because I enjoy doing it. If people hate me, then so what, it was funny that someone actually compared my looks to looks of top 1.6 players, still, I play a game for some shits and giggles, and I do what I can for the community. I don't have an ego like yourself, which needs to be adored by many. I speak the truth, and live by the truth, if people like yourself cannot handle the truth, then thats down to you.

wcg does not have cs:go as a title, iem does not have cs:go as a title, e-stars does not have cs:go as a title. eswc has a small side tournament for cs:go. valve hasn't given anyone money to host a cs:go tournament. glad we have that cleared up.

lol non-sense. sure vavle is a big company with lots of money, but they're also a business. all the tournaments and promoting about cs:go is just advertising. what valve is trying to do is sell as many copies of the game as they can to make easy money and in return, they hope the game will be a new contender so they can get more buyers. do you think it's hard for them to make cs:go? they have all the coding on hand and with minor tweaks they can port and create any fps game. they save lots of money by just tweaking old game codes. it's just dumb how they used the name counter-strike to confuse everyone thinking they're making a game for the cs community.

cs:go is not cs. it's cs and CoD mixed. hence the game cs:go (counter-strike = cs and global offensive = CoD). so valve's business strategy for cs:go is to merge the two communities together and it's pretty obvious. cs:go will never be anything like 1.6 in terms of movement and physics because then how will they lure the CoD kids? they have to meet in the middle.

i bet valves next counter-strike version will be "counter-strike:battlefield".

sorry i don't believe you. just because a pro team is moving to another game doesn't mean the game is any better. you just don't have a mind of your own to understand that ordinary people play games they like. pros who are trying out cs:go is just trying to earn some income because cs1.6 tournaments are slowly diminishing. how are they going to make an income with no cs1.6 tournaments let alone they don't even have a stable job.

cs:go will fail. just like source. how can anyone even stand to spectate that horrible game. it's like watching a bunch of retards dry humping a door knob.

I like CS:GO, but hey, I like CoD so I guess my opinion doesn't count... When is CSP 1.09 coming out? I really want to try it out... 1.08 felt beast to me, and I think their new lag system will make wonders :)

ok heres the problem i installed cspromod then steam automatically downloaded
1. source sdk base 2006
2. source sdk base 2007
then when i start the game it just stuck whether i play offline and even when i try to plan online it stuck at loading map or retrieving server info... wtf is wrong?

CS 1.6..........whatever do you think, what country are you from, what game are you playing, you have at least once heard about cs1.6 and his greatest names: NiP, Spawn, Heaton, fnatic, Fx(or whatever) and there are a lot more:-j

I dont understand something, here is like 15000 members or i am wrong? So made this calculation, 15000x1e every month, that is 15000e budget from players, so you will have 3 cups/tournaments per month. So that is like

1st place: 3500e
2nd place: 1000e
3th place: 500e

So that is like, every user or CS 1.6 fan that is saying "CS WILL DIE :(, FUCK CS;GO" to give 12e per year, and to keep CS Alive.

all i m asking for is creating an account where we/cs1.6 lovers can donate some money to keep our beloved game alive, now if i ask for the donation then no-one going to believe me but ppl have faith on hltv.org so it would be gr8 if hltv.org does something abt it..... talking abt organizing a tournament.. just hire a bunch of ppl after collecting money (not a big deal)

But i wrote many times before. If there is no "Pro tournaments" anymore, that does not mean that CS 1.6 is dead? But you said, without money, there is no competition. So, without Good tournaments and PRO teams, CS is Dead? So this is the way how "complete scene" can help to keep CS alive. Creating few Divisions, and invest all that money, can help CS alive. But on the end. this is only you, and me, talking on some topic.

it depends on your definition of counter-strike, theoretically the game can not die because you can always go play it against bots even if no one else on the planet played it, and realistically people will continue pubbing it for a while i guess.

I think that CSP it's better than CS:GO or CSS, it's similar and maybe the gameplay will be more easy to the 1.6 gamers, but we all have to pass to that game, and recognize that 1.6, unfortunately dies.

Think that ur from AMD or INTEL, do you will support a game that was created in the year 1998?.

I play since 2001, and I find it hard to accept that 1.6 dies, but well, It's time to choose.

Ultimately, people will end up playing the best games. That is why 1.6 has been the king of fps past 10 years. Starcraft2 will be strong esports aswell, and yet again, there is a history of broodwar as rts genre king for over a decade. I wouldnt be worried at all that cs:go or something that crappy takes over the scene. Actually cs:go has already lost majority of its "players" or testers.. as the statistics show.